ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Two environmental groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to
overturn new federal regulations that grants permission to oil
companies working in the Chukchi Sea to disturb the polar bears and
walrus that live there.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, challenges
regulations issued last month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
that allow "incidental takes" of the animals, meaning permission to
disturb or accidentally harass them as long as such actions do not
result in physical injury or death.

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Tuesday's lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and
Pacific Environment, is the latest volley in legal challenges over
protections for polar bears and other animals from expanded oil
development in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off Alaska.

"It may seem like we're filing a lot of lawsuits," said Brendan Cummings, oceans program director for the center.

"But the fundamental thing is they're all really focusing on the
same fundamental issue, which is protecting polar bear habitat in the
Chukchi and Beaufort seas."

A spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service declined to comment on
Tuesday's lawsuit but defended the incidental-take regulations, which
are meant to be in effect for five years.

"We believe that the incidental-take regulations are a valuable
conservation tool," said Bruce Woods, spokesman for the service's
Alaska headquarters.

Polar bears were listed in May as threatened under the Endangered
Species Act, and a petition is pending that would give similar
protections to the Pacific walrus.

The remote and ice-choked Chukchi, which lies between northwestern
Alaska and northeastern Siberia, is emerging as a hot oil prospect.

After many years of scant industry activity, Royal Dutch Shell Plc
and other oil companies earlier this year moved aggressively to pick up
exploration acreage.

A lease sale held by the U.S. Minerals Management Service in
February drew a record $2.66 billion in high bids, with $2.1 billion of
that from Shell. Shell currently holds a permit from the MMS to do
seismic testing in the Chukchi this year to evaluate the geology there.

Industry activity is also accelerating in the Beaufort Sea off
Alaska's northern coast. Shell, which spent $44 million on leases there
in 2005 and $39 million in 2007, is seeking to explore a prospect it
calls Sivulliq.

BP Plc, meanwhile, has plans to develop its offshore Liberty
prospect, a 100-million-barrel oil field that would be the first
producing oil field located entirely in federal waters off Alaska.

But environmentalists and the area's Inupiat Eskimos are alarmed at
what they consider to be an industry rush into critical habitat for
whales, polar bears and other Arctic animals already imperiled by the
warming climate.

"It's an unfortunate convergence that as global warming impacts in
the Arctic are accelerating and putting polar bears and walrus under
deep stress, the only thing keeping pace with that is the rate of
authorizing oil development in their habitat," Cummings said.

Tuesday's lawsuit came just days after a federal judge in Anchorage
rejected a similar complaint concerning impacts to whales and seals
from planned seismic tests this year by BP and Shell.

U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline last week dismissed that
lawsuit, which had been filed by Inupiat villagers and environmental
groups challenging permits granted by the National Marine Fisheries
Service and the MMS.

The "balance of hardships" weighs in favor of the agencies, BP and
Shell, "who have invested significant time and expense in preparing for
the scheduled activities," Beistline said in his July 2 ruling.
"Moreover, the public interest in energy development favors upholding
the permits."